Previously Published

The Ministry of Prophets and Apostles Today

We should become “swift messengers” in order to share the gospel with the world, Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, and Elder Jeffrey R. Holland spoke about the nature of the Godhead. Their comments were addressed to new missionary training center presidents and their wives and new visitors’ center directors and their wives, as well as missionaries at a devotional.

“Eternal principles are the scaffolding the Church provides,” Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told students at Brigham Young University—Idaho. “These eternal principles are embedded in the doctrines of the kingdom of our Eternal Father and reflect His eternal plan of happiness. We meet as members of the Church to teach and learn from each other the principles of righteousness and receive saving ordinances so the scaffolding is stable and steady as we build our eternal family units.”

“You are growing up in enemy territory,” President Boyd K. Packer told youth during a broadcast commemorating 100 years of seminary. “When you become mature spiritually, you will understand how the adversary has infiltrated the world around you.” But, President Packer added, “You are not ordinary. You are very special. You are exceptional.” And he offered counsel about how to survive in enemy territory.

“The priesthood of God is a power like nothing else on earth,” Elder L. Tom Perry of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told a priesthood leadership conference for several stakes in and around Centerville, Utah. “We ought to be certain that people understand what a great blessing it is to receive this priesthood and what it means in our Father in Heaven’s kingdom.”

As the Church commemorates 100 years of seminary, watch and read the testimony of prophets and apostles concerning the immediate—and eternal— blessings that seminary, institute, and gospel study can bring to youth and others who will make the effort to learn.

“May we ever be courageous and prepared to stand for what we believe, and if we must stand alone in the process, may we do so courageously, strengthened by the knowledge that in reality we are never alone when we stand with our Father in Heaven,” President Thomas S. Monson said during the priesthood session of the October 2011 general conference.

Elder David A. Bednar of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught, “As members of Christ’s restored Church, we have the covenant responsibility to search out our ancestors and provide for them the saving ordinances of the gospel.”

“You live in a world where moral values have, in great measure, been tossed aside, where sin is flagrantly on display, and where temptations to stray from the strait and narrow path surround you,” President Thomas S. Monson says. “Many are the voices telling you that you are far too provincial or that there is something wrong with you if you still believe there is such a thing as immoral behavior. . . . Does this make immoral behavior acceptable? Absolutely not! The commandments of our Heavenly Father are not negotiable!”

How would a living prophet, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, treat young children in Guatemala today? The same way the Savior treated children during His ministry in the Holy Land, when He said, “Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.” And that is exactly how President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, treated little children during a recent visit in Guatemala—he sought them out and blessed them.